


easy as breathing

by dollcewrites



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, Merman!Sanji, Pirate!Law, also Nami/Vivi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 04:09:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12927108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dollcewrites/pseuds/dollcewrites
Summary: Drowning was the most pleasant thing Law had ever done.





	1. resurfaced

Drowning was the most pleasant thing Law had ever done.

Though it wasn’t so at first—the water had slapped his face, stung his nerves, rushed into his unsuspecting nose and lungs. Raw fingers of salt clawed down his windpipe. It was so bright when he tried to open his eyes; the water light and clear as heaven itself. A place he couldn’t hope to go. So perhaps this was second best.

The worst part was every cell of his body screaming for the oxygen he couldn’t claw his way up to. His fingers pushed the water, his limbs struggled and jerked, but he couldn’t swim. He could only sink. It was agony and panic perfected, to choke over and over again and again, to have his brain shut down. Law was sure it was dying piece by piece.

And then everything slowed down, as if there were litres of rum in his blood, trapping him in syrupy suspense and time. The bubbles that his plunge stirred were soft as butterfly kisses, the brush of eyelashes against a cheek. Small and ticklish, each one.

It was so beautiful, he thought; the ocean a gaussian blur. It was painful to look, but he wanted to. If the soft cerulean palette was to be his last view, he wouldn’t mind that at all.

The water was gentle and warm. It kissed his forehead and fingertips as it drove a knife through his windpipe. Infinite, it cradled him here in this tiny bay, in the colossal Caribbean, a comforting blanket. Still and calm it rocked, and he stayed the same, heartbeat stilling too.

  
✧ ✧ ✧

He was beautiful.

Wavering diamonds of sunlight from the surface danced over the man’s skin. His hair was wild, short, and jet black in the bright water, swaying like the beds of seaweed below. Slim, curved lips parted ever so slightly to invite the seawater. Thick lashes lay against high cheekbones, eyes closed peacefully, as if he was simply sleeping in the waves.

The thing that interested Sanji most was his tattoos.

He’d seen tattoos on sailors before. Mundane, poked little ones or ugly big ones with off colours. Nothing like these.

Letters he couldn’t read stamped slender fingers, brands inked the backs of his hands and forearms like compasses or runes. Through the soaked white of his cotton shirt, drifting like a jellyfish, more of the black ink was visible, radiating over his chest in a heart with tendrils and decorating his back in a smile.

These tattoos were beautiful, bold, and intriguing:

He was the same.

And he was drowning.

Sanji took the air from his own lungs, pressed his lips to the man’s, and kissed life back into him.

  
✧ ✧ ✧

When Law wakes, his back is flat to the white sand of a beach.

He is facing a smooth sky, not one cloud to cast a shadow. He almost thinks he _has_ died, that perhaps the afterlife is a blank stretch of beach. (Something about that is rather lovely.)

But he’s in too much discomfort to believe this is death.

His lungs are sore, and his throat is worse, jagged even. Underneath the sun his skin is salted sticky, and his muscles feel heavy. The world stings fresh and keen, and he breathes in the pain hungrily over chapped and split lips. Breathing is raw and being alive is blissful: painful and blissful and all consuming.

He closes burning eyes for a moment only to feel a coolness pass over his face.

  
✧ ✧ ✧

His eyes flutter open, finally.

Sanji’s breath catches in his chest, and he leans closer.

The man’s irises are deep gold amber, ringed with a dark line, flecked with browns and greens. They match the gold of his ear piercings. They match the night sky, the sun, and the ocean floor—covered in light and rocks and algae.

They slide over to Sanji’s face, which is hovering above him, and Sanji almost flops backwards onto the sand because his elbows want to give way.

But running away would be rather pointless now.

The man’s seen what he looks like. Sanji’s saved him, and he doesn’t intend to go about it half assed.

Their fate was sealed the moment he sealed his lips against the other man’s.

“You’re not human.”

The man speaks in a croak. His voice is like sharp seashells.

“No,” Sanji agrees.

  
✧ ✧ ✧

 

Law hadn’t expected a reply.

Hearing words so solid and whole come from from the creature’s mouth is something as surreal as the creature itself—a finned angel, something ethereal and alien.

The first thing Law notices is that he _shimmers._ Smooth pale skin is iridescent, reflecting a fine rainbow, shining all the way down a slim, built torso. His eyelashes are salt bleached and collect sunlight in droplets. Blonde hair is similarly lightened and salted, so porous it seems green tinted; like it’s becoming an aquatic plant. It curls around his nape and flops over half of his face.

His eyes are a mirror to the ocean.

His legs are simply not there.

Instead, a brilliant tail curves into the sand. It’s thick, smooth, and the fin on the end fans out transparently. Scales have the same kaleidoscopic effect as his slicked shimmer, and he reflects the blue of the sky like a gem.

Looking hurts Law’s tired eyes.

  
✧ ✧ ✧

 

“I was separated from my pod,” Sanji says.

“Your pod?” Law asks.

“Merfolk live and travel in groups,” Sanji explains. “That tropical storm a couple suns ago split us up.”

_Suns? ...Days?_

Law remembers the storm. Black skies ripped up with lightning and rain so heavy, it felt like there was no air.

The night before the mutiny. _Before he was thrown off the ship, Donquixote’s laughter and suggestion that he swim to the little far off island reaching his ears just before they went under._

“Can you find them again?” His voice is still a little rough, and he speaks in a low tone not to stress his throat.

“Probably… they’ll be searching for me.”

_One of us is wanted, then._

Law looks out at the flat blue horizon and wonders why the fishman bothered to save him.

 

✧ ✧ ✧

 

Sanji teaches him how to swim.

Days passed mostly in a lonely fashion, with Sanji scouting the waters for his pod—sending out clicks he said they might hear, and catching fish for them to eat. Law sleeps in the shade of the palms for most of the day, drinks water the storm left in clefts of the island’s rocks.

Before sunset, the merman likes to beckon him into the water. In the shallows, it’s warm and pleasant. Sanji takes him by the hands and leads him further every day, showing Law how to float, at first, steadied, and then let go of, floating free.

The water holds him gently. Law thinks of it differently now.

He looks at the sky, and then to the merman beside him, wet hair dripping down his beautiful face.

“Why’d you save me?”

Sanji looks taken aback.

“How could I not?”

Law doesn’t comprehend. The stories of merfolk tell of danger and cunning. Pretty faces and cold hands and sing-song voices that drown you.

Sanji is warm, like a human. Not cold. His voice is real and tangible, not a magic. He’d saved Law’s life.

“...Thank you.”

  
✧ ✧ ✧

 

In three days or so, Law can swim by himself. Sanji is always by his side though, smiling an open smile with open blue eyes taking him all in.

It’s cool at night. Back to the sand, Law lies there until the leftover heat from the sun leaves it. He wakes on the fourth night to clammy skin, finding himself shivering a bit, but with a strangely slick and warm presence beside him.

Sanji’s pressed to his side, face still and sweet in sleep.

  
✧ ✧ ✧

 

On the fifth day, Law is walking along the beach, feet dipped in the sand and frothed ocean lapping his ankles, when something moves in the corner of his eye out in the blue.

He turns his head to see Sanji half out of the water, beckoning Law over.

It’s further out to sea than he’s ever swam, but he begins to wade in, knowing Sanji will meet him halfway.

And he does.

Sanji’s hands entwine with his—this familiarity is surreal to Law, but he accepts it, would accept any course of reality after everything that has happened.

“They’re here—they found us!”

  
  
  
  
  



	2. reborn

Faces. Tails. Hands.

Law focuses on the faces first. One round, with big dark eyes, and a bigger smile. Seawater sticks together wild dark hair, drips over a scar under his eye. This merman is smaller, his tail red and gold and his voice filled with joy as he splashes around Sanji.

Another face is tan, hair green like seaweed and short. His eye, chest, and his thick tail all boast scars. His eyes are gold and narrowed at Law, but they soften and relax when they watch Sanji and the smaller merman interact.

There’s a few others—another dark skinned mermaid, her hair black as the night, presence calm and gentle, tail blue and purple and shimmering. An olive skinned merman with a long nose and long orange tail.

Eventually all Law can look at is Sanji.

He’s smiling, delighted, and answering questions that Law isn’t bothering to listen to. Some glances are directed to Law, curious and lasting longer every time.

His legs feel heavy in the water, tired from keeping him treading. Just as he feels he could give out, an arm circles his torso and draws him in.

“You okay?” Sanji asks.

_Am I okay?_   


_ What happens to me now? _

 

✧ ✧ ✧

 

“It’s up to you.”

Law doesn’t understand what Sanji is saying. They sit on the sand with water running over them, Sanji’s tail flicking in the leaving tide.

His silence invites Sanji to speak again.

“We have a friend with a ship. He could take you back to people, to a port somewhere. There’s a couple islands with townships in this part of the ocean. I’m not sure where you’d want to go from there… do you have a pod of your own…? Humans you miss…?”

Sanji’s voice is unnaturally neutral, searching Law only for his answer.

He laughs drily. “I have no one to go back to.”  No one.  “I’m also a wanted man.”

Sanji misunderstands, a frown creasing his brow.

“You’re wanted..? Then shouldn't you go where you’re wanted?”

“No, I’m wanted for... doing bad things. Some people want to lock me up.”

Sanji stares at him for a good time. And then, slowly, a soft smile that fills even his eyes creeps onto his face.

“It’s not really a choice then. You can come with us. You can… be with me?”

_ You can be with me. _

_ No,  _ Law thinks.  _ That’s impossible. _

“How..?”

 

✧ ✧ ✧

 

The air is humid and sticky and Law’s eyes take in every inch of the green jungle as they paddle along the inlet that has become a river. The water is smooth, clear, and the little paddle boat he sits in moves along swiftly, tugged at the front by the merman named Zoro, and pushed at the sides by Sanji and Luffy. 

One of Law’s hands holds the side of the boat, and Sanji’s hand rests over it. His heart pounds in his chest.

The river opens out to a small lagoon. Behind it, a rocky, mossy sheer cliff rises up, plants sprouting miraculously from its face and hanging leaves down. A veil of waterfall falls from the top.

Her hut stands on thick wood pillars in the middle.

It has a veranda, with steps into the water, and an overhang of bamboo and palm fronds shading it. A set of a circular table and chairs sits on the porch and wind chimes in a multitude of colours sing lazily.

_ Is this what the house of a sea-witch looks like? _

Zoro docks their boat by the porch.

“Nami!” Luffy calls out. “Nami, it’s us!”

Law wasn’t sure what he was expecting—an old lady with a necklace of fish bones?—but it was not this.

She' a beautiful young woman: Hair like he’s never seen, orange and bright like a hundred sunsets, skin so pale and covered in freckles like stars. She has a thin yellow dress on, a necklace with a tiny bottle of sand, and bracelets of seashells.

“What a surprise,” she smiles, but her eyes say otherwise. She looks right at Law, right  _ through  _ him, and then to Sanji, smiling knowingly. 

“Come in, Trafalgar.” she beckons to him.

 

✧ ✧ ✧

 

Law alone walks inside. 

It’s clean and surprisingly homely, soft rugs, polished wood tables, the smell of the breeze and the sea. Charms and chimes dangle from the roof and candles are lit on dressers. 

In the centre of the first room, a perfectly square, low table sits on a tough, patterned rug. Four little pillows surround it.

Another woman sits on one.

She’s slim and elegant, gold jewellery circling her neck and wrists and contrasting her dark skin. Her hair is collected up in a high ponytail. It’s bluer than a clear sky, and cascades in a waterfall of curls.

“This is my lover, Vivi.” Nami’s voice is so serene and casual. “Please, sit,” she gestures, eyes already elsewhere. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Law sits.

“Sorry if she comes off a little strange—” Vivi smiles warmly, brightly, “she’s always looking at so many things.”

“...She knew my name.”

“She knows a lot.”

 

✧ ✧ ✧

 

Sanji swishes the submerged half of his tail in the lagoon’s water nervously. The base of his tail and his palms rest on the wooden steps onto Nami’s porch and he leans his weight back into them.

Nami’s voice comes from behind him.

“It’s a lot to ask.”

Sanji turns and sees her standing in the doorway, leaning on the frame.

“I haven’t asked for anything, yet,” he replies.

She comes and sits by him.

“You don’t have to ask,” she says quietly, looking out to where Zoro and Luffy splash in the water. “I already know what you want.”

They watch the scenery for a minute or so. The trees surrounding the water flutter their leaves.

“It’s going to hurt him a lot, isn’t it?” Sanji says. 

_ He remembers Vivi’s tears. Her tail—that beautiful emerald tail—had writhed and writhed as she herself shuddered, her and Nami’s knuckles white where their hands gripped each other with intertwined fingers. Her sobs of pain as the scales fell off or melded into skin, fin receding... _

“To change a tail to legs… is painful. Legs to a tail… it’s a little different.”

“It won’t hurt?”

“It will still hurt. But instead of separating and shedding, we’ll be melding and growing. For the tail at least… some changes to his biology, his lungs… but it won’t be as bad.” Her voice is a little bitter.

_ He remembers how pained Nami’s wide brown eyes were, watching Vivi change for her. To be with her, how they both yearned for. _

“You think… our bond is strong enough?”

Nami looks at him, no clear expression. “That first kiss sealed it. The breath of life, from your kind…”

Sanji had thought that was just a story.

“...your bond will only strengthen,” Nami concludes.

“You’ll need my blood, then?”

She nods. “And a scale.”

 

✧ ✧ ✧

 

It’s not unlike drowning was;

He’s gasping for air, his lungs convulse against his ribcage, his throat feels strange and it’s like vents are peeling open on his neck— _ gills? _ He squeezes his eyes shut, tries to breath evenly, he can feel Sanji’s hands in his, holding him tight.

His skin burns, it stretches, the bones in his legs fucking  _ ache _ .

“Law—Law!” It’s Sanji’s voice. “Come here, come into the water,”

His eyes open for a moment and Sanji’s arms beckon him in, he lets himself slip off the steps into the water, into Sanji’s embrace. Pain is shrieking through his body.

He finds himself choking on the air—was air always so  _ dry? _

And then he’s pulled underwater.

_He’s breathing._

_ He’s breathing the water. _

It feels like his legs have been  crushed _. _ It hurts, it hurts so bad. It feels warm at the same time.

His eyes are shut and he’s held against Sanji, underneath the still water, and everything has changed but this is where they started. Suspended in a bay, beneath the surface, Sanji saving him.

This is where his new life starts. One he actually has hope for.

The warmth and heaviness increase, and the pain is slipping away. He can hear things so... clearly. There are fish about 6 metres below him. Two bodies nearby, tail movements sending vibration through the water.

Sanji’s heartbeat is so close. It's the loudest thing.

Law opens his eyes.

Everything is crystal clear. The water is so transparent, and right before him is Sanji’s face, stricken and eyes searching. He can see every fine detail, the blond lashes, the flecks of grey in his irises. They find Law’s eyes, and everything stops.

The water slides easily through his nose and gills. Gentle.

His tail—his  _ tail _ —softly pushes the water, keeping him from sinking without aid of Sanji’s arms.

Sanji’s hands cup his face.

His eyes are the ocean.

Law leans in, and kisses Sanji with everything he has.


End file.
